Chapter 5: First weekend in Florence

My first full weekend in Florence was a blur of various adventures and misadventures. Briefly, they involved: A sweaty and wrenching quest to find, purchase, and assemble (using the only tools in our apartment: Scotch tape, hemp, and a steak knife) a fan in our room to fend off our impending heat strokes, a welcome-to-Florence bar crawl from which myeslf a few other girls from ISU left early and got spectacularly lost for a considerable amount of time, eating my first (of what will be MANY) comes of gelato while looking up at the Duomo, being constantly and shamelessly flattered and flirted with by many handsome but laughable Italian gentlemen, and last but not least, my first trip (also first of many, almost daily) trips to the amazing central market to buy Florence's freshest bread, cheese, fruit, vegetables, olive oil, spices, wine, and pasta! A few days in this country, and I am completely sold. I love it.